Arkansas Financial Aid System | Manage Your Scholarships Easily

1. Arkansas Department of Higher Education Universal Financial Aid System

2. Arkansas Department of Higher EducationUniversal Financial Aid System www.adhe.edu • Launched on January 1, 2010 • Search and apply for all ADHE administered scholarships and grants at one time • Receive e-mail status notifications • Available all year, but deadlines built into processing • Connects to multiple government datasets to reduce applicant input and error. • Manage your account 24/7 to include: • Updating personal information and college • Reviewing transcript and test score information

5. The Good News • EVERY ELIGIBLE TRADITIONAL STUDENT WAS AWARDED A SCHOLARSHIP • More awards than budgeted. • More going to Universities than projected. • EVERY ELIGIBLE CURRENT ACHIEVER STUDENT WAS AWARDED A SCHOLARSHIP • $41.5 million was budgeted for current achievers. • Fewer students met this criteria than projected. • 4,986 NONTRADITIONAL STUDENTS • $12 million was budgeted for nontraditional students. • A priority/ranking system is in place for : 70% closeness to degree, 20% GPA, 10% high demand field of study.

6. More Good News By Friday evening we anticipate that: • EVERY ELIGIBLE 2 YR COLLEGE NONTRADITIONAL STUDENT WILL BE AWARDED A SCHOLARSHIP • EARN-INS (currently enrolled) • DELAYED (Adults going to college for the first time) • EVERY ELIGIBLE 4 YR NONTRADITIONAL DELAYEDSTUDENT WAS AWARDED A SCHOLARSHIP • Waiting list for Earn-ins

7. The Good News • A total of 25,815students have been awarded the Academic Challenge scholarship for Fall 2010. Arkansaswill triple the amount of students receiving the academic challenge scholarship from 8,282 last year. • There are 4 types of student receiving funding: • 4,906 are students who were awarded the Academic challenge in previous years. • 12,493 traditional students have been offered the award • Of the 37,049, nontraditional students: • 4,987 met the Current achiever definition and were offered the scholarship • 4,986 will be offered the Nontraditional scholarship. • Of those not receiving funds, 27,305 applications are ineligible to date.

8. Academic Challenge (Traditional) 16,905 High School 16,905 • Paper Transcripts 4,801 • From Private • and home school • Electronic • 12,104 • From • Public high schools FAFSA Citizenship: US & AR Register for Draft No loan default Matching up Records • Student Issues: • Missing transcripts • Missing ACT • Missing FAFSA • Smartcore • Not responding to emails or reviewing accounts • Process Issues: • Could not determine what was missing until paper transcripts reviewed • Missing ACT • Missing FAFSA • Multiple scholarship criteria As of July 30, All traditional students notified of their status Every student who qualifies will be funded –even if later.

9. High School Process • High School Student process worked rather well. Issues were/are: • Some student data from a few school districts did not correctly populate the ADE database. Most of these issues were discovered early. • Home school and private school transcripts are paper and require manual review. • Largest complaint: • 2.5 and ACT 19 or equivalent for non-Smart Core students.

10. Academic Challenge (Nontraditional) 36,707 Nontraditional and Current Achievers 36,707 • Paper and ‘electronic transcripts’ from public and private colleges have to be reviewed to determine what category: • Current achiever legislation category required revision of software: available June 15 • 15k applications from May 15-May 30 • Sorting of transcripts: 1. Multiple transcripts; 2. determine current achiever; 3. prioritization FAFSA Citizenship Register for Draft No loan default Matching up Records • Student Issues: • Missing transcripts; Missing ACT/or other • Missing FAFSA • Not response to emails or reviewing accounts • Process Issues: • Could not determine what was missing until paper transcripts review ed

11. Nontraditional/Current Achiever Process • New category added as part of the 2010 Legislative changes to the Lottery Act • Students had already applied • Required extensive edits to the software program. • Current Achiever criteria • Full-time in college since high school and 12 hours have to be at an approved institution • Have to look at every term to determine • At least 2.5 GPA • Prioritization: closeness to degree, GPA, workforce need • Issues • All transcripts had to be manually processed. • Multiple transcripts • Recalculated GPA and hours attempted for those with many transcripts • Incomplete applications • Have to process all applications before ranking

12. Addressing the Volume of Applications • Early on ADHE redirected 5 FTE to work with the scholarship staff in processing applications. • In early June, ADHE hired 3 temporary workers to assist with filing transcripts. • In July, ADHE contracted for 48 fulltime people under that arrangement. • In July, ADE provided 9 staff members to help review transcripts.

13. Addressing the Volume of Applications • Current Achiever: • Limited funds and thus prioritization of applicants is required. • Adult Learners • 70% is closeness to degree, 20 % is GPA, 10% is major • Current achievers who did not meet the full CA criteria were considered for the nontraditional earn-in funding.

14. Academic Challenge Scholarship(Traditional) Total: 16,903

15. Academic Challenge Scholarship(Non-traditional/Current Achiever) Total: 37,049

16. Expenses

17. Things to think about . . . • Budgets are for a fiscal year and the year has just begun • Funding required to be available for the November 1 deadline • Funding students in the pipeline through to graduation

18. Moving Forward • There will be additional expenditures for the academic year 2010-2011 • New awards to students who have a previous Academic Challenge award, due to processing summer school credits • Error corrections will add to student awards • Current Achiever and Non Traditional students may apply for spring awards until November 1, increasing the number of awards